[Ip-health] Press release- Prioritise and protect Access to medicines in Central America

[Terri - Louise Beswick]

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PRESS RELEASE from Health Action International (HAI) Europe on behalf of
the Latin America- European Alliance on Access to Medicines.



19 February 2010- The eighth round of negotiations towards a European
Union - Central America free trade agreement (FTA) is taking place next
week in Brussels. In light of the EU's customary ambitions for
intellectual property (IP) in trade agreements, we are very concerned
about the potential damage to access to medicines in Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua from overreaching IP provisions.

The EU's demands on intellectual property (IP) have proved highly
controversial in other EU FTA negotiations, such as those with India,
and the Andean countries. Overreaching IP provisions restrict and delay
generic competition, representing a barrier to access to medicines. The
new European Parliamentary Working Group on Innovation, Access to
Medicines and Poverty-Related Diseases has highlighted the necessity of
coherent EU policies that promote access to affordable medicines, and
over the past few weeks, some Members of European Parliament have voiced
concerns in parliamentary questions about the inclusion of TRIPS plus1
measures in the EU-India FTA.

Following the recent publication of impact studies showing how the EU's
IP proposals could harm public health in Peru and Colombia,2 and the
joint Oxfam International/ Health Action International (HAI) Europe
report on the EU's trade agenda and access to medicines;3 European
Commission negotiators can no longer plead ignorance of the consequences
of rigid IP regulations.

"We have not yet seen a text, but we hope that the EU's negotiators will
abandon any plans to include IP provisions that will threaten access to
medicines," said Sophie Bloemen, from HAI Europe.

She added,

"The impact studies conducted in Peru and Colombia revealed the
potentially devastating consequences of the EU's IP provisions, with
implications for national health budgets. Central American countries
must guard against such provisions in this FTA."

The cumulative impact of the EU's trade policies compels developing
countries to place the interests of European pharmaceutical companies
above their national public health priorities, in contradiction with the
EU's long history of commitment to development. As negotiations
continue, the LAC-EU Alliance for Access to Medicines4 calls on the EU
to prioritise its development commitments and protect access to
medicines in Central America.

1 Measures that go further than the standards established in the World
Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS)

2 IFARMA. Impact of the EU-Andean Trade Agreements on Access to
Medicines in Peru. October 2009.
http://www.haiweb.org/11112009/ReportIFARMAImpactStudyPeru(EN).pdf

3 Oxfam International/ Health Action International (HAI) Europe. Trading
Away Access to Medicines: How the European Union's trade agenda has
taken a wrong turn. October 2009.
http://www.haiweb.org/20102009/OxfamHAIReportTradingAwayAccesstoMedicine
s.pdf

4 The Latin American -European Alliance for Access to Medicines is a
coalition of European and Latin American civil society organisations



For more information on this or other HAI Europe campaigns, please
contact Communications officer, Terri Beswick: [terri@haiweb.org]